7. Wright notes that in the old play of The True Tragedy of King Richard the Third almost the only line having anything in common with Shakespeare is Richard's exclamation, "A horse, a horse, a fresh horse."

9. Cast, a throw of the dice.

10. Hazard, the thing risked.

11. Be is often used for are when some notion of doubt is involved, as in questions, and after verbs of thinking.

My kingdom for a horse!

It is clear that the horse was one of Shakespeare's favorite animals. His appreciation of the grace, strength and loyalty of horses is evident in the care he took to name so many of the horses mentioned in the plays -- Barbary, Capilet, Dobbin, Surrey, Galathe, Curtal -- and in the intense feelings horses kindle in his characters. The following is a collection of Shakespearean quotations on horses, including the most famous of them all from Richard III: "A horse! a horse! my kingdom for a horse!" Read on...

Notes on Shakespeare...

Dr. Hall, Shakespeare's son-in-law, left detailed records of his medical practice which reveal that, astonishingly, he had developed a treatment for scurvy made from local grasses and plants high in ascorbic acid, over one hundred years before James Lindís discovery that the disease could be treated with citrus fruit. When Shakespeare's daughter herself contracted scurvy, Johnís treatment was a complete success. Read on...
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At the time Shakespeare wrote his second tetralogy of history plays, Elizabeth I was nearing the end of her reign. She had not produced an heir and so she was faced with the arduous task of selecting the next king or queen from a wide and varied list of candidates. The succession struggle had raised the concern of the people and Parliament as early as 1566, and in 1571, an Act had prohibited the publication of books about claimants to the throne, other than those established and affirmed by Parliament because they might breed faction. Read on...

Henry Bolingbroke, the eldest son of John of Gaunt and the grandson of King Edward III, was born on April 3, 1367. Henry usurped the throne from the ineffectual King Richard II in 1399, and thus became King Henry IV, the first of the three kings of the House of Lancaster. Read on...
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Anyone involved in the production of plays in Elizabethan England, from the playwright to the theatre owners, knew that the Master of Revels was the man to impress and fear, for he auditioned acting troupes, selected the plays they would perform, and controlled the scenery and costumes to be used in each production.
Read on...
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It is interesting to note that George Bernard Shaw (1865-1950), who ridiculed those who worshipped Shakespeare (inventing an insulting term to denote the study of Shakespeare - 'bardolatry'), secretly admired Shakespeare a great deal and often told his close friends that he thought the Bard had an unsurpassed command of the language. Read on...